BB747

Hello everyone,

First of all I wish you all a happy new year 2015 !

The reason I am posting this thread is because despite all my research on internet there are no answers to my questions, and I am sure there are people on this forum who are also doctors or know a lot more than I do. I hope you understand I don't really want to ask an AME if it is to shot me down. lol

So my question is:

- When a commercial airline pilot suffer from a large amount or disturbing floaters (whatever the age), is the FOV (Floater Only Vitrectomy) a surgery allowed by the class1 medical ? If yes, would it be a restricted class 1 then ?

- Any airline pilot on this forum who has to deal with this problem ?

I am 29 and quite concerned by this problem now, my vision is good and eyes are healthy, I also passed my last medical class 1 no problem but as time goes by I get more and more disturbed by new floaters and it will come a day where I will have to do something about it, so I need to put a strategy in place as soon as possible if I want to keep my job in the futur.

Thanks a lot if you can help me

BG47

You may be vitamin/mineral deficient. Google “eye floaters vitamin deficiency”.

Continual stress & poor diet causes vitamin/mineral deficiency, a pilots life is stressful and bad quality food via airport/aircraft meals. 1 in 3 adults are deficient in C, B’s, D and Magnesium.

Get tested for vitamin/mineral deficiency from a hormonal doctor or adrenal gland doctor get the full range test but make sure that you are tested for all B deficiency, C, D, magnesium, & A.

BG47

just wanted to add that there is a long list of symptoms for vitamin/mineral deficiency, another one that impacts pilots is ringing in the ears. Ringing in the ear is a classic sign of vitamin B’s deficiency plus others. There are specific vitamins for ringing in the ear just google “ringing in the ear vitamins”, they are also sold at your local health food store.

BB747

Hi BG47,

Thank you for your reply, unfortunatly once formed in the eye, floaters don't disappear and no-one knows the reason why they form in young eyes like mine. It is a constant degradation despite the fact I try to eat healthy or take vitamin pills. The thing is, once the breakdown of the vitreous starts, it can't be stopped, that's why I need to think ahead with the surgery called Floater Only Vitrectomy which is quite dangerous but probably the only way for me to keep going. I need to know if it is a possible solution for me in the futur.

helimutt

Its something you can either get used to and just live with it, or risk the op. I have 'floaters' but having spoken to medical professionals about the issue, they say its better to live with them if your vision is good, than risk the operation. I believe it involves removing the fluid with a needle into the eye, cleaning the fluid and then squirting it back into the eye. Just the thought of that is enough to pretend the floaters dont exist.

Not sure if thats the exact method but I would imagine its close. yuk.

BB747

Hi Helimutt,

You are exactly right but they just replace the old vitreous by a new artificial one. The operation is quite scary I must admit but if it gets too bad there will be no choice or losing my job... I agree with the fact we have to leave with them, but to a certain point though, it all depends on people and the amount and size of the floaters. In my case my vision is still good but dark floaters on the side especially on top of my vision, always in the blue of the sky distract me and I wonder how they will evoluate

So are you saying that you told an AME and he said it was fine ? Also did he mean that an operation can be a solution in the worst case ?

HEATHROW DIRECTOR

Presumably your floaters are severe? I've had floaters all my life and no AME has expressed any concern. They were a pig for rifle shooting and one would always settle in the middle of the sight!

Few years ago floaters became extremely bad in one eye and I went to the eye clinic. Doc said it was common at my age when the vitreous fluid in the eye becomes less vitreous and pulls away from the inside of the eyeball, including from the retina. It's called Posterior Viscous Detachment and the floaters are largely due to small drops of blood. The consultant said they would clear, and they did. I developed similar symptoms in the other eye and didn't bother to see the quack. They too cleared although I still have some floaters; presumably those which I'll have for ever.

BB747

If my floaters are severe ? Well that's a good question, not severe enough to impair my vision but severe enough to bother me when I am outside. I have hundreds in both eyes, all shapes but mostly cristal clear (Dots, lines, coweb, waves, etc... ) and 90% of my floaters don't bother me anymore, I got used to them but new ones appeared lately and they are placed somewhere which really annoy me but luckily they are away from my centre of vision.

I know that it will never improve but get worse and worse, so if I can still see clearly now it may not be the case in few years so I need to find a solution. The only solution available today is the Floater Only Vitrectomy, this surgery gets more and more common with most of the time good results, but is it allowed for airline pilots ?

I am sure I am not the only pilot with bad eye floaters, and maybe someone out there had a surgery and got his class 1 back. I know that the simplest way to answer my question would be to ask an AME but honestly I don't want to risk it. So if someone can help me I would really appreciate

Have a good day everyone

Merchant Navy Class

Avoid surgery at all costs….. You can now get them lasered out!

BB747

I went to see a famous retina surgeon in London who practices laser for floaters, and he said he couldn't treat my floaters because they are too small and too close to the retina. Not a solution then

Sick

From what I've read, there is no hitch free way of removing them, and cataracts is normally the result of the standard treatment.

As for ageing, more tend to leak in, but also the vitreous becomes less thick, so they can tend to sink out of view.

I really would try to feel at home with them.

Loose rivets

I've written a sizable amount about floaters and undergoing vitrectomy but it was some years ago. Google Pprune.org/Medical & Health/Loose rivets/vitrectomy etc., etc., to do a better search than this forum's search.

This appeared in a moment's search along with others.

http://www.pprune.org/medical-health...aters-eye.html

Firstly, avoid bright sunlight and really work at the diet thing. NO strong spirits. I had a terrible scare at your age. In bright sunlight, when the iris was small, they filled my vision but were not too bad at night. After weeks, or even months, they cleared up completely. I was gifted with wonderful eyesight and had no trouble until I had finished flying. It may be I caused my own vitreous humor to detatch during a psychology experiment that entailed rubbing my eyes. My idea, so only me to blame. Shortly after I got the full effects of a detachment in one eye and a mild problem in the other.

One eye surgeon in Colchester Essex UK was not bothered. He'd caused his in a car accident when he was young and went on to being a consultant surgeon. However, they annoyed the heck out of me and I plumped to have it done. The first time I felt fear was on the gurney on the way to theatre. I thought, what the hell am I doing? Anyway, it was a breeze - until the cataract. That simple procedure seemed worse in a way because of the wait.

The membrane surrounding the organ - for that's what it is - is incredibly fine and is only attached at a few points (I think, 7 without looking it up.) One of these is very near the optic nerve so any tugging may be the cause of the flashing crescent moon symptom some people see at the out edge but they are not sure.

At your age avoid a vitrectomy if possible. The procedure is significant eye surgery but fairly straight forward. As I understand it, the entire vitrious humor - with its membrane - are removed. The eye is filled with saline or some such.

A nuclear cataract may well follow shortly after your eye has settled down. They are a sod, because the brain tries to see around the blocked centre of the lens rather than the whole lens just getting misty. It caused a lot of disruption in busy stores where there were millions of things on shelves. Driving was easy as the affected eye had suddenly gone short sighted so my brain favored the other eye.

The other thing that happened to me, but may not affect others, was that in straining to get the focus perfect, I was tugging on the large extra-ocular muscles. I'd done this trick most of my life, determined to fine-tune to perfect vision, but I didn't fully realize how I was doing it. Now the lens was blocked in the middle, the brain pulled like hell to overcome the issue and four eye consultants had no idea what I was on about. Days of aching pain and terrible focus due to the eye being literally distorted.

One day my wife braked sharply for something that had run into the road, and the symptom disappeared for a few minutes. Now I knew what it was! I asked the doctor for Valium as a diagnostic tool and a mere 5mg took about 5 minutes to relax the muscles. The pain was gone and I could focus again - less the blank spot of course.

A lesson I always try to promulgate as I wouldn't want anyone to go through that pain and distress.

When you get settled down again, your vision is likely to be very good. However you are now missing a vital UV filter. Look at a black bulb with a normal eye and you can hardly see it. With the saline only eye, the black bulb with be ablaze with light. Very telling - so strong sunglasses for the rest of your life.

Some days I want to tear at the bad eye. The operation has been offered but since other days are really good I've held off for a few years. There are a few other risks, but if it's really bad you know there is an escape route that'll most likely work.


The eyes are incredibly resilient when young. Look up Col. Stapp and his deceleration tests. Lots of them. The greatest g ever to hit a test subject. 47 comes to mind. "Removed from the track with his eyes engorged with blood" and he did it time and again.

Loose rivets

https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl...ets/vitrectomy

DeflectedAileron

Eye floaters are small moving spots that appear in your field of vision. They may be especially noticeable when you look at something bright, such as white paper or a blue sky.

I have been having such a problem when I was at a young age, and they never bothered me, nor do they appear troublesome. Like above, I really only see them in something really bright. However, I am afraid that I might fail my Class 1 Medical for having floaters and my dream will be over before it began. Will having floaters EXEMPT me from passing my Class 1 Medical?

Loose rivets

Probably best to just pass the medical - which you'll no doubt do with ease - and not mention the floaters since they seem insignificant.

BB747

DeflectedAileron your eye floaters are way too small to be a problem ! If you red my post I have a lot of floaters ! I can see them all the time everywhere even if it is not bright, I have all the sizes, from cristal clear dots or lines to black dots, coweb, curtains, etc... it is pretty bad but not enough to impair my vision fortunatly, but despite my crap vitreous I passed my class 1 without any problem
So do not worry you have NO problem with floaters believe me

Cheers !!

MikeJulietHotel

BB747, there are two things it's worth knowing about floaters:

First they are like tinnitus, if you think about them they are a pain, you notice them all the time. If you don't think about them you don't notice them. the brain is amazing at "filtering" stuff like that out so that you can function.

The more important thing is that they _may_ be a sign of something serious. This is not so much for you as you have had them for a while, but for others. If you suddenly develop floaters you should hot foot it to an eye surgeon for a check up. Some diseases of the eye, such as infections in the retina, create lots of floaters suddenly. So get them checked out.

BB747

One year later here I am, back on this thread

MikeJulietHotel thank you for your answer but floaters are not like tinnitus, It all depends on their amount and size really ! In my case they are too many and to dark to be avoided, even if I don't think about them, they are not long to let me know they are there.

But I would like to give an update, it has been a year now since I started this discussion and as expected the floaters got worse ! Now a new one in my left eye really annoying and pretty much all the time in my center of vision gives me hard time lately But Still it doesn't affect my vision bad enough to lose my medical I guess as the doctors can't see anything if not told.

I went last week to see a surgeon specialised in eye floaters and laser treatment, he is one of the best in Europe and I hoped he could destroy my brand new annoying floater but in fact he couldn't see it ! He really struggled to see anything wrong in my vitreous and it took about 30min to be able to spot few floaters in my left eye which means that there is no way other doctors can see them which is good for the class 1 I suppose but not for my mental health Basically micro floaters found on young people are sitting in the pre macular bursa which is very close to the retina, and that's why they are ugely visible for the patient but almost invisible for the doctor, so the only real solution up to this day is the FOV (Floater Only Vitrectomy).

So once again I would really appreciate if commercial pilots out there with bad eye floaters could get in touch with me, everyone's story is interesting i just can't believe that I am the only pilot on earth to suffer this problem, or I would clearly be a Legend to be able to fly jet airplanes depiste seeing like through a dirty fish bowl ! hahaha

Anyway thanks for reading guys and please ask questions to the pilots around you, I would appreciate to get in touch with people like me.

Ciao

Loose rivets

First thing: I'm only a retired pilot but have years of researching this problem.

The other first thing: Don't go for zapping with a laser. That should be a DON'T! There's a chance you'll have perfect vision again with the full removal, but now it really must be weighed up by two things: Top consultant, and patient's age. Such a high proportion of folk over 60 have the problem, and it seems that to retain to the organ (it's that in the full sense of the word.) might just be stacking up problems for later.

I know your going the Vitrectomy route, but that's a general warning to whomsoever may be reading this thread. Last ditch? Well, perhaps.

FOV? I would have thought it best to have it all removed. So would FloaterGuy

Floaters after FOV? in FOV - Floaters Only Vitrectomy Forum

I'm sure you've been told the vitrious humor is a fantastic UV filter. A black bulb will look like a blue strip , and a blaze of light without that organ. The eye must be protected by good sunglasses - forever.

Have you had a scan with the tomography to show a side slice of the retina? I'm curious to know what the contour of your fovea is like. I'll tell you why.

A few weeks ago the hospital that did my left eye years ago agreed to do the right one this month. That's a vitrectomy and retinal peel* (I'm not sure that's not slang for a longer term. In fact, I'm sure it must be.) What blew my mind in the last moments of the interview was, 'Do you want general or local anaesthetic?!' My age - with some disquieting information about general anaesthetics on the elderly, had me saying yes to the local. I spend some time a week removing bricks from my loo.

However, I'm at the stage now where I have 20/20 vision with me specs on, but next moment, the right eye is really fogged. It also has something growing over the fovea. Very small intrusion, but it has the affect of crinkling the retina and indeed, the side scan shows it as though the vital minute indentation is covered or flattened. My diagrams of what I can see was the deciding factor. In fact, those hurried sketches tallied with what he could see in the eye, better than the scan. Bit of a waste of a hundred grand.

It seems that thing is unlikely to grow back, though it takes a year or so for the retina to un-crinkle.

I'd be a bit inclined to research this FOV thing a bit more. But that's just me.

Some days I feel as though I want to tear at the eye it's so frustrating, and if they get it half as good as the left eye, I'll be very relieved.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

BB747

Dear Loose rivets,

Thank you very much for your concern and implication to my thread !
I find it hard to understand everything you write though as I am not an English spoken native haha but I get most of it I think.

Because you have longer research than me I would like to ask you few questions to clarify everything you said :

You think it would be a bad idea to get a FOV at my age (30) because you think I could get complications in the future ? Like what complications ?

I understand you had a vitrectomy on your left eye which went well, no complications whatsoever ? Now your right eye is bothering you but did it have any surgery of any kind in the past ?

If you are talking about retinal tomography, Yes I just had one and the doc said there were absolutely no problems and not visible floaters as well, but why do you say you are curious to know how the area around my fovea looks like ?

Also don't you think that FOV are much safer now with the 25 gauges instruments ?
Have you heard about Dr Wong Randy ? Treatment for Floaters - FOV to Remove Floaters

He says that FOV are very safe now, even safer than cataract surgery and has no hesitation to operate young patients as he thinks risks for complications are rare.

You know I am only 29 years old and I swear my floaters are all over the place, I don't know how long I will be able to safely fly in this condition so what are my solutions ? My job means everything to me.

Take care